Tamam Shud Case - The Somerton Man

The Somerton man was an unidentified man who was found on Somerton beach in Adelaide, Australia in 1948. Also known as the Tamam Shud case from the phrase "Tamam Shud" meaning "finshed" or "ended" which comes from "The Rubaiyat", a Persian book of poetry. A section of the final page of the book was found in a hidden pocket in the man's trousers.

The case occured during the height of the Cold War and as such recieved a lot of scrutiny because of various strange details about the man and other facts (or lack thereof) of the case. These included the man's still unknown identity, the page from "The Rubaiyat" along with what seemed to be a code scribbled on the back of the book.

Here follows a timeline of the case.

December 1, 1948: A mystery man with no apparent cause of death

An unidentified man was found on Somerton Beach at 6:30am. Several witnesses had seen the man in the area on the previous evening and had presumed he was drunk or asleep on the beach. An autopsy was carried out and the estimated time of death was 2:00am although no obvious cause of death could be determined.

Various items were found on his person including a bus ticket for a bus stop less than a mile away, an unused train ticket, chewing gum, cigarettes and matches. All labels had been removed from his clothes but they were of a high quality with some European traits. It was noticed his trouser pocket had been torn and repaired with orange thread. The pathologist noticed that the man had some physical characteristics to lead him to believe he was a long distance runner or a ballet dancer.

Suicide seemed to be the most obvious reason for the man's death and the pathologist reasoned he must have poisoned himself. This was inferred from some swelling of the spleen, increased blood in the vessels of the liver and blood in the stomach. Despite this no evidence of poison was found.

December 2, 1948: Identity confirmed

The local media reported that the man was E.C. Johnson aged 45 and that an investigation was ongoing.

December 3, 1948: Who is this man?

A man identifying himself as E.C. Johnson presented himself at a local police station and the investigation therefore proceeded to search anew for the identity of the man. Also that morning a photograph of the dead man was shown in "The News" newspaper prompting many calls proferring names for the dead man.

December 5, 1948: Some leads and an uninteresting find

Many possible identifications had been made and "The Advertiser" reported that the police were searching military records after a man came forward and claimed to have had a drink with the dead man in the Glenelg Hotel in November. He claimed the man showed him a military pension card with the name Solomonson.

An inquest was started but was adjourned until June 17, 1949. Meanwhile a man from nearby Glenelg went with his brother-in-law for a drive in a car he kept at Somerton beach and in the back seat he made an innocuous discovery of a book in the back seat.

January 12, 1949: Calling all lost property

With little evidence and the investigation ongoing the police put out a call for all lost property in the local area from hotels, train stations and lost property offices. A brown suitcase was discovered in Adelaide railway station which proved to be the first major lead. It was deposited on November 30 and presumed abandoned.

Among the contents of the suitcase was a reel of orange thread which was discovered to match the thread used to repair the Somerton Man's trousers. Despite this, the case revelaed little else about the man's true identity. As with his clothes, the labels had been removed from the suitcase and all but three of the items of clothing in the case. These labels bore the name "T. Keane" but this name led to another dead end and it was concluded that the labels were left on for this precise reason. Other items in the case indicated that the man was an experienced traveller, particularly on merchant ships, and that he was sending communications overseas.

April, 1949: A mysterious hidden scrap of paper

John Cleland, professor of Pathology in Adelaide University was brought in to reexamine the body. He soon made an exciting discovery. He noticed a small pocket sewn into the waistband of the man's trousers . Hidden inside this secret pocket was a scrap of paper and printed on the paper were the words "Tamam Shud" and seemed to be ripped from the last page of the book "The Rubaiyat". The words were roughly translated to mean "the end" or "finished". A search was started for the copy of the book that the page had come from.

June, 1949: Running out of time

The unknown man was beginning to decompose and it was decided to make a plaster cast of the man's uppper torso and have him embalmed. He was finally laid to rest on June, 14 following a small ceremony.

July 23, 1949: An uniteresting find proves more interesting

A man came forward with a copy of the Rubaiyat which he had found the previous December in the back seat of his car on Somerton Beach. He had presumed that the book had belonged to is brother-in-law. He had put the book into the glove compartment without a second thought.

The book was examined closely and it was concluded that the page in the hidden pocket of the Somerton Man had come from that copy of "The Rubaiyat". On initial investigation the book seemed to provide no clues to the man's identity. Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane however decided to examine the book more closely. He noticed that there were impressions left on the penultimate page of the book as if someone had written on the final page before tearing it out.

Under ultra-violet light five rows of letters were made out.

The five lines of text seem to be a code of some sort with most people concluding that the second line is a mistake and rewritten in line four.

Also discovered were two phone numbers. The first number was the number of a police station and held no leads. The second belonged to a nurse in the area. Known to the police as "Teresa", the nurse admitted that the copy of "The Rubaiyat" had belonged to her but she had given it to a man named "Alfred Boxall" in 1945 and had no contact with the man since then.

It seemed the case may be solved with this man Alfred Boxall tracking this nurse down and committing suicide when she had rejected him. However Alfred was alive and well in Sydney with his copy of the book.

July, 1949 - Present Day: Theories and Intruige

The code was never cracked despite being pored over by professional and amateur code breakers. Although it was concluded by the Navy to be the first letters of a phrase or poem, possibly from the same book.

Some theorist have speculated that a rare genetic trait link the son of Teresa and the Somerton Man and that the chances of a random match are remote.

Others have taken into account the time at which the case played out and have speculated that the man was a Cold-War spy, possibly British, named H.C. Reynolds but this has remained unproven.

A new rocket test base was also being built in nearby Woomera which led man to link the man with spy activity also.

With the body now sealed in Adelaide and many of the people connected with the case dead or forgotten we may never discover the true identity of the Somerton Man.